Days of Summer
by Stephinator Lynn
Summary: Kate gets dragged by her best friend to the Hamptons the summer after her mother's death where she meets her new favorite author, Richard Castle.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: As much as I wish I owned Castle... I do not.

Days of Summer

PROLOGUE

"Javi, I had to invite her. She needs to get away from the city."

"She's gonna be a bummer on our vacation babe."

"She's my best friend. It will be fine. Plus, it's my family's cabin, my choice."

Javier Esposito picked up his girlfriends best friend's bag and put it into the back of the car. "What the hell does she have in here? Rocks?"

"Books Espo!" Kate's head popped out of the back seat window. "And I can hear you. Trust me, I won't get in the way of your Hampton's summer love fest." She put her large sunglasses back over her eyes and slipped back into the back seat.

Lanie slapped her boyfriend on the shoulder. "Will you be nice? It's only been four months since her mother died." She whispered. "She's been a total train wreck since. She flunked this last semester. She was supposed to start law school this fall. She needs this."

Javier leaned in and kissed his girlfriend. "I'm sorry. I'll behave. Let's hit the road."

When the two of them got into the front seat Kate pulled her glasses down to rest on her nose. "I heard that too Lanie." She said before putting in her ear buds and turning on her iPod.

"This is going to be one long ass summer." Javier mumbled, earning another smack from his girl friend.

"Richard Castle, you know that I need the first 150 pages of your next book no later than three weeks from now right?"

"Yes Gina, I know. And that is why I am packing up and heading to my place in the Hamptons for the summer. I need to get out of the city. Find inspiration."

"Is that your way of telling me that you haven't even started? That you have no idea what you are going to write about?"

"Uhh..."

"Castle, if you do not finish these pages by the deadline you are going to have to return your one million dollar advance."

Richard Castle sighed. "Don't worry Gina, I will be done in time. I always am."

"I believe that when I have 150 pages in my hands." And with that his publisher hung up.

"Dad, I could hear Gina yelling." Castle looked across the room to find his five-year-old daughter Alexis sitting on the couch. "She sounded mad."

"Yea I know. You're a very perceptive little girl. You all ready to go to the airport?"

"Yep." She got up from the couch and grabbed her pink carry-on bag.

"Alright. So, grandma is going to go with you to LA to meet your mom and then only god knows what she's going to do but she will be back to get you in a month ok?"

"I know dad."

"And you call if you need anything ok?"

"I know dad."

Castle smiled. "And I'm going to miss you like crazy ok?"

Alexis smiled back. "I know dad."

END PROLOGUE


	2. Chapter 1

Days of Summer

Chapter 1

Kate Becket sat in the guest room of her best friend's summer home in the Hamptons reading the latest Richard Castle novel. She loved the way this man wrote. Kate could close her eyes and imagine the entire book as if it were a movie in her mind. She never used to be a big reader of crime fiction but her mother had been a fan of this series and had all the books. Wanting to feel close to her mother, she read almost all of them; all of them except for this newest one. Her mother had been reading it before she died. She had not been able to finish it.

"Girl, we gotta get you out of here." Kate looked up from her book and saw Lanie standing in the doorway.

Kate looked out the window. It was the most beautiful view. She had a view of the beach, which the back porch led to and the sun was shining brightly. It was enough to make her nauseous. "I'm ok Lanie. Thanks."

"Nuh uh. Not this time. There's a party a couple of houses away and we are all going. Including you."

"Lanie, I came here to relax. All I packed was my running gear and sweatpants."

"Sweetie, I know you came here to relax, but you can't just hide out in here all summer. And, being your best friend and knowing that you wouldn't pack any party clothes, I threw some things of yours into a bag." Lanie threw a jean mini skirt, halter top and wedge sandals. "Take your hair out of that librarian bun you got going on and get changed, we're leaving in twenty minutes." Lanie walked out of the room. "And tomorrow we are going shopping!"

Kate shook her head but couldn't help but smile. Her best friend was just trying to help. She had been there when Kate had spiraled out of control. She had been there, holding her friend close at her mother's funeral.

She also knew there was no saying no to Lanie. She looked at the clothes in her lap. At least they were cute. She got up and took her clothes into the bath room to change for her first Hampton's party.

This was not the typical party Kate was used to in New York City; especially the ones she had frequented over the last few months. She had gone to parties for the wrong reasons. She wanted free booze, free weed and to forget with guys, lots and lots of guys. Sure this party had all of that, but it was sophisticated, classy even, not rowdy. Men wore khaki's and dress shirts while girls wore skirts, summer dresses and their mother's expensive pearls. She felt like she was in Oz.

She watched the party from a far, standing on the far end of the expansive back deck. She could see Lanie's house from here, it would be easy to make a quick getaway.

"Can I get you something to drink?"

Kate turned. Standing next to her had to be the most handsome man at the party; tall with brown hair and dressed in khaki's and a blue button up shirt. He was older than her but just by looking at him she could tell he was a little childish. He looked a little familiar but she couldn't quite grasp where she had seen him before.

"Oh, no thank you." She answered.

"I can get you a soda, juice, some water?" He was persistent.

"Do you work here or something?" Kate asked, a little more playfully than she normally would.

He smiled, "live here actually. And, what kind of host would I be if I let a beautiful woman, attending my party go thirsty?"

"This is your house?" The man nodded, "it's beautiful."

"Thank you. I'm Rick, by the way."

"Kate."

Rick leaned against the railing of the deck. "How is it that I don't know you Kate? Are you crashing my party?"

"One, I honestly don't think you know everyone at this party." Kate gestured to at least eighty people on the deck alone. There had to be at least 150 people here. "And two, I came with Lanie Parish and Kevin Ryan."

"Ah yes. I know Kevin. I have never met Lanie but I know her parents, Dr. and Mrs. Parish."

"Then you aren't going to get one of your bouncer's to kick me out?"

"Hardly. So, are you from the city?"

"Umm, yeah. I'm spending the summer here with Lanie."

"Are you in medical school with her at NYU?"

Kate froze. She was attending NYU pre-law until two weeks ago. "No, I don't." She said quickly. She was glad when he didn't ask any other questions. It was embarrassing enough that her friends knew about her failing school, the last thing she wanted was to talk to the handsome stranger about her failures.

"Ricky!" Someone from inside the house called his name.

"I better go. Are you going to be around later?"

"I'll be around all summer." She smiled, knowing that she was treading on dangerous ground. She had told herself before she came here that she had to get her life back on track; no alcohol, drugs, or guys.

"See you around then Kate." He said before heading through the crowd.

"Hey girl, who was the hottie?" Kate could tell that unlike herself, Lanie had found the bar a few times over.

"Hey Lanie. That was the owner of the house. Rick something."

"Castle."

"What?"

"Rick something. It's Rick Castle."

If Kate did have a drink she would have spit it all over her friend. "Umm, I have to head back to the house; I'm not feeling too good."

Before Lanie could answer Kate bolted down the back stairs, taking off her wedge sandals and running along the beach back to the house. She ran up the back stairs and straight to the guest room, picking up the latest book she was reading and turning it over to look at the back. There, staring at her was the face of Richard Castle. Rick. The man she had been talking to, flirting with, had been Richard Castle.

End Chapter 1


	3. Chapter 2

Days of Summer

Chapter 2

The next morning Kate went for a run along the beach to clear her head. She couldn't believe that she had spent the best part of last night flirting with Richard Castle. Her mother's, and recently her, favorite author was living three houses away from her this summer.

Kate ran for about a mile down the beach before she turned around and started running back. She wished she had remembered her sunglasses. She could barely see in front of her. She was close to the house when something caught her foot and she fell forward into the sand.

"Whoa, are you okay?"

Using her hand to shield her eyes from the sun she saw him. Richard Castle. He was sitting in a lawn chair on the beach with a laptop in his lap and a coffee nestled into the sand beside him. He hadn't been there when she went by the first time.

Kate got up and brushed the sand from her legs and arms. "Umm, yeah. I really should watch where I'm going."

Castle closed his laptop. "Kate, you're bleeding." He pointed to her right shin.

"Shit." Kate muttered. "I better get back to Lanie's. Clean this up."

Castle got up from his chair. "Come inside, I'll clean it up for you. Get you a cup of coffee?" Kate looked at her watch. It was only seven. Lanie wouldn't be up for hours and that fancy coffee machine looked really confusing. That was a good enough excuse to follow the handsome author back to his house in just running shorts, sports bra, and Nike's right?

"Sure. Thanks. Lead the way Castle?"

"Castle? People don't usually call me Castle." Kate followed him as he walked up to his house.

"I call all of my guy friends by their last names. They usually call me Becket."

"Friends huh?" Castle asked.

"Just a habit I guess." Kate teased. She really had to stop doing that.

"Well, we've got all summer. Hoping I can become more than a guy friend." Touché Richard Castle. He led her into the kitchen and motioned for her to sit on the kitchen island. "Let me just grab my first aid kit."

Kate looked around. What was it with these Hampton's home owners and their fancy confusing coffee makers?

"I'll make you a latte after I clean this up." Latte? Did he own a Starbucks or something?

"Thank you."

"Your welcome. So... Beckett, I hope you don't mind me asking but, how old are you?" Castle bent down to clean the cut on her leg.

"If you're trying to find out if I'm jail bait you're safe on two accounts. I'm not sleeping with you and I am twenty years old." Kate knew from the biography of Richard Castle she had read online last night that he was twenty-seven years old.

Castle laughed, not even fazed by her blunt words. However he was finding it difficult not to run his hands up the longest legs he had ever seen. "As helpful as that information is, I was just asked because you weren't drinking last night and you're underage, I get it."

"That's not why I wasn't drinking." She muttered.

"Oh?" He asked, genuinely curious about the beauty before him.

"I've had a little too much drinking as of late." Kate answered honestly. I'm using this vacation as a sort of cleanse."

"I get that. Believe me. Maybe you can help keep me in check this summer."

"You need help keeping in check?"

"Considering I threw a party last night instead of starting my new book makes me think I need to be kept in check."

"You're here writing your next book?"

"Supposed to be. Thought a change in scenery might spark an idea."

"And has it?"

He looked up at her. "So far so good." Kate rolled her eyes. He smiled. "So, maybe we keep each other in check this summer?"

Now it was Kate's turn to smile. "Deal." Maybe this was exactly what she needed this summer.

"Great. I'm all done here. Sorry about the Disney Princess band aid, it seems to be Alexis' favorite thing right now."

"Alexis?" Kate asked as Castle went over to the scary 'coffee machine'.

"My daughter. She's five." Kate was stunned; his biography has said nothing about a daughter, or a wife for that matter.

As the coffee brewed Castle went and grabbed a picture off of a shelf. "This is her." It was a picture of a beautiful little girl with fiery red hair taken at the beach just outside. "Her mother lives in L.A. Alexis is there visiting her for a month before she comes home."

Kate nodded. So he was divorced. "She is absolutely beautiful. So, Alexis lives with you?"

"Yeah. Her mother is a bit of a flake." Castle handed her the specialty coffee. "Let's talk about more pleasant things shall we? Do you go to NYU with Lanie and Kevin?"

Kate was all for telling the truth; but this truth just hurt a little too much right now. She took a sip of her latte. Man that was good. "Yeah, and also Javier Esposito, he's dating Lanie; him and Ryan were in all of my Criminology classes this year. Espo and Ryan are headed to the Police Academy up-state in September." Kate was trying her hardest to keep the conversation off of her.

"Wow. That's so cool. So, they want to be NYPD?" It seemed to have worked. "I should talk to them about my next book."

Kate smiled. "Yeah, the NYPD. They think they are going to be some hot shot detectives."

"Even cooler." Castle noted. "Maybe I can use them in my next book."

"Trust me; they don't need their egos built up anymore than they already are."

"Then maybe I can use you in my next book."

"If you make me some damsel in distress I swear I will kill you."

"Oh Beckett. You are definitely not some damsel in distress."

Kate smiled. She wished that were true.

END CHAPTER.


End file.
